


One-Eyed Friend

by oracleskald



Category: Norse Religion & Lore
Genre: Devotional Poetry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-05
Updated: 2021-01-05
Packaged: 2021-03-16 00:15:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 318
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28572858
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oracleskald/pseuds/oracleskald
Summary: I wrote this poem kind of feverishly, and in secret. At the farmer's market, clasping a coffee and watching the world go by. Under the duvet in the middle of the night, trying not to wake my husband when I'd finally worked out what came next. On the bus, on the back of napkins, in notes on my phone... it is the story of the day that Odin first came to me, in a dream, and claimed me as his own. Three words that changed my life - "this one's mine".





	One-Eyed Friend

The haft weaved through my fingers  
as though it knew its mark.  
The only path between my ribs  
and between my breaths of “wait,  
why me?” The red-haired one, now, he was one thing  
but his one-eyed friend? He was  
(by all accounts) a force of nature not  
for those who didn’t know just what they wanted,  
or the silvertongue of a god.

And yet; and yet I lay there,  
my back against the wall, my legs  
askew in front of me and my blood  
spilling from my side like rubies from a thief  
and I did not try and run. I did not move,  
or cry out, or try to understand the unimaginable,  
the unknowable. And he stood, his weight on his staff  
and his back straight and his broad-rimmed hat  
not quite shielding his eyes from my sight,

and he watched. Silent. Stern. Solid.  
An ineffable force at the end of days, or at least of mine,  
or perhaps of days yet to come in which I had a purpose  
only he had planned. Later, his words would sit -  
like mead in my stomach - and tempt me with promises  
of what I want. But he is not a nice god, and to forget  
is to court the unexpected.  
And true to form as the head of the hunt,

as the carrier of spears, the friend of ravens,  
that night he stood in front of me and met me at my level  
and told those unseen witnesses that “this one’s mine”.  
He smiled, crooked and charming,  
the one you’ve been warned about  
and if looks could kill, well. I was dying anyway,  
and if Odin had a part for me in his machinations then  
“Why me?” no longer mattered. All that remained was to-

wake up.  
Breathe deep, clutch my side, and take great, healing breaths….  
And then think about what the Allfather could do

for me.

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted at [historicaloracle.ca](https://www.historicaloracle.ca/post/one-eyed-friend). Comments welcome here, or there.


End file.
